My performance at the March 2021 online Boston Modular meetup.  Generative, using Plaits and a live mic for sound sources, run through filters, delays, and reverb.

Boston Modular March 2021 Performance

Digitized a compact cassette I recorded a while ago, only to realize nothing in the house could properly play back tapes.  Think it's my Casio CTK-6000 and Korg Monotron run through my Zoom MS-70CDR effects pedal.  Was recorded on an old shoebox-style cassette recorder and played back from a boombox (though one new enough to have a CD player).

Definitely ran the levels too hot.

Did a bit of limiting and compressing on the computer to bring the levels up.

Old Cassette

My day-late performance for Drone Day 2021, peformed using my Eurorack modular synth, Arturia Keystep, and Alesis SR-16.

Drone Day 2021

Piano Improv 2021/05/31 1

Piano Improv 2021/05/31 2

Piano Improv 2021/05/31 3

Jazz-Bluesy Sketch

Roslindale Porchfest 2021 Preview

My performance at Roslindale Porchfest 2021.

Porchfest 2021 Performance

Discordant Piano 2

Our local synth meetup group finally started meeting in person again.  Dropped by and made some weird space-y noises.

Boston Modular April 2022 Performance

Boston Modular May 2022 Performance

My performance at the Boston Modular meetup in June 2022.  First part is the live performance; second two parts were recorded at the event after the live performances.

Boston Modular June 2022

Discordant Piano 3

Boston Modular August 2022 Performance

Didn't feel like doing modular this time around, so I brought my Game Boy with Game Boy Camera (it has a small sequencer/synth feature) and my Zoom MS-70CDR effects pedal and made noise with those instead.

Boston Modular September 2022 Performance

Boston Modular December 2022 Performance

Boston Modular February 2023 Performance

My performance at Boston Modular in May 2023.  Playing Surge XT from my Arturia Keystep.  One track, just using Surge XT's internal effects.

Boston Modular May 2023 Performance

Testing my Zoom H5 with a Kimball spinet piano.  Piano was against the wall, so the recorder was placed on a small tripod under the piano bench, pointing at the piano.  Recording was normalized and trimmed, with a small fade in/out.

Zoom H5 Piano Test

Just trying out my new Kawai ES8.  This is using the Upright Piano sound, with the voicing set to Bright 2, recorded to WAV using the USB recorder, then trimmed and converted to MP3 in Audacity.

(The original MP3 sounds slightly better -- sounds like SoundCloud might have re-encoded it a second time for streaming.)

Kawai Upright Bluesy 1

Final-ish remix of my older orchestral piece using ValhallaRoom for reverb.

Epic Strings re-mix with ValhallaRoom

A test of my new Make Noise 0-Coast, controlled using an Arturia Keystep, running through the tape echo and modulated reverb on my Zoom MS-70CDR effects pedal.  I used the latched arpeggiator on the 0-Coast, but patched the synth to generate random gates for more variety.

0-Coast Sketch #1

My first public performance at Boston Modular.  Used a Make Noise 0-Coast controlled by an Arturia Keystep and Korg SQ-1, run through a Zoom MS-70CDR effects pedal, and recorded by a Zoom H5.

Boston Modular June 2018 Performance

I've recently been using the Korg SQ-1 to generate random chromatic pitches, and found that I could get acoustic bass sounds from the 0-Coast, so I decided to experiment with a west coast synthesis approach to jazz, using the Slope circuit and random voltage circuit together to generate random rhythms and timbre modulation.  I'm not sure if it came out quite how I expected, but it was fun to create.

I used my Zoom H5 to record two tracks of the 0-Coast running through my Zoom MS-70CDR effects pedal set to a 4-second delay with high feedback, to create an evolving melody/rhythm.  The first track is meant to evoke an acoustic bass, while the second is closer to something in a brass section.  I mixed the two files in Reaper, panning them slightly, adding a bit of EQ to reduce the bass, and adding some ValhallaVintageVerb to provide a sense of space.

0-Coast Sketch #2 - Semi-modular West-Coast Jazz

A synth-oriented improvisation using my 0-Coast/modular for bass and lead, and SR-16 for drums.  Disting is providing tape delay as usual.

Modular/0-Coast/SR-16 improv

Just some experimentation using only my modular (Pittsburgh Modular, with a Disting).

Modular-Only Experimentation

An experiment in using frequency-modulated feedback loops and a quantizer to generate melodies and sounds.  Had a few other bits of feedback as well -- reverb output going to inputs on the LFO, etc.

Digital Landscape 1

Just some late night-ish contemplative piano.  Used the full-size (9-foot Kawai SK-EX) grand on my Kawai ES8, instead of the 6 foot (SK-5) one I usually use.  Did a bit of limiting (-3dB in Audacity).

Even More Piano Improv

Contemplative Piano 1

Piano's back from repair -- figured I'd record more things.

Contemplative Piano 2

Did something a bit more experimental -- wrote a computer program to generate notes from the Fibonacci sequence (adding in a few rules to add accidentals to the otherwise C-major scale, and to add divisions and sections to the piece), and interpreted it on the piano.

I accidentally repeated some of the sequence a couple of times, and the recording level was a bit low, but otherwise, I think it came out well.

Fibonacci 1

Modified my earlier Fibonacci program to add chords, fed in the chords for the Folia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folia) and set the right scale, and did another performance based on the output.

J.P. Tuttle

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks